An Awakening in Small-Town Hawaii
The first time God reached out to me, I was a teenager—probably about seventeen years old. Spiritually, my life had lost its focus, and I felt as though I had lost my direction.
I was born in Hawaii to a naval officer from Jackson, Mississippi, and a local Hawaiian girl from a small town. My father had been baptized Catholic, so I was too. My mother attended the local Catholic church because it was the most prominent one in our town, but for the most part, Hawaiians are Protestant.
When I was young, I didn’t truly understand much of what went on in church. It wasn’t a priority for my father either. He eventually left the Navy to become a civil engineer, dedicating his interests more to science than religion.
Yet there is something beautiful about Hawaiian culture: it is deeply steeped in prayer. It is a joyful, unifying kind of prayer. We always prayed at family gatherings and before we shared a meal. At the close of public gatherings, people would even sing together, uniting their voices in a song called Hawaii Aloha.
That beautiful, prayerful atmosphere is how I grew up.
The Power of Encounter
My mother and father were complete opposites—he was all facts, and she was all feelings. Like many couples, they eventually hit some bumps in the road. Hoping to find a way forward, they attended a Marriage Encounter Weekend, a private church retreat designed to help couples reflect and improve their communication.
The results were incredible.
I had never seen them so genuinely happy together. They spoke to each other with deep fondness, held hands, and were simply a joy to be around. When they saw the change in their own lives, they asked if I wanted to go with them to a Family Encounter Weekend.
I thought to myself, “Sure, I want to be happy too.”
That weekend was amazing. I came home beaming. My friends immediately noticed a change in me. I was happier and more peaceful.
Something much deeper had happened as well. I had been born again. Although I didn’t yet understand everything that was happening spiritually, I could feel the Holy Spirit moving within me.
A World Beyond Sight
Not long after that, I drove to a local high school to give a friend a ride home from an evening class. As I sat waiting in the school parking lot, the Lord gave me my first vision.
In an instant, He revealed a world existing just beyond our natural view.
I could still see everything around me—the people, the buildings, the landscape—but suddenly I could also see spirits walking right alongside the people moving about.
I believe now that what I experienced was the spiritual gift of the Discerning of Spirits, though I was completely unaware of such a concept at the time. I knew that Hawaiian culture held many stories about seeing spirits, but those traditional tales were usually terrifying accounts of hauntings and night marchers.
What I experienced was entirely different.
It was peaceful and serene. The plants and trees seemed to shimmer with a vibrancy I had never perceived before. When the wind rustled the leaves, it sounded almost musical, as if the trees themselves were playing distinct notes.
I never felt a single moment of fear or uncertainty.
I felt only pure, unadulterated joy.
Seeking the Messenger
I haven’t experienced a vision like that since.
Over the years, the Lord has typically chosen to communicate with me in my sleep through a dream or through a simple, undeniable message. But those moments have been sporadic, often with years passing between them.
Over the last decade, it became incredibly important to me to understand how to receive His messages more regularly. That search caused me to reflect on something I had witnessed when I was younger.
Back in my twenties, a Hawaiian man about the same age as my parents would occasionally visit our house. His name was Kalua Kaiahua, a local construction worker and underwater welder.
Kalua was a Christian healer. By his own account, he hadn’t always been that way. He had been a boxer before working in construction. But the Lord had come upon him and gifted him with the power of healing.
If you visited his house after he got off work, you would find people lined up outside just to see him.
We would sit in a circle in his meeting room, and whenever he spoke to the crowd, it felt as though he was delivering a deeply personal message meant just for you. He would begin talking, pause, and look up toward heaven as though waiting for the Lord to give him the next word. Then he would continue.
I personally know people who were healed by Kalua of everything from torn ligaments to cancer. He was even known for something particularly remarkable among women concerned about high-risk pregnancies later in life. Through prayer and the laying on of hands, he would “tie their tubes”—without surgery—to prevent a future pregnancy. Women I spoke with who received this ministry told me they could actually feel him tying their tubes as he laid his hands on them. That was how they described the experience to me. This was not abortion; no pregnancy was being terminated. The purpose was to prevent conception in the first place.
The local hospitals knew Kalua well and allowed him into patient rooms whenever a family requested him.
It was amazing to watch him work.
But what stood out to me most was the specific word he seemed to have for each person. At times, Kalua would tell someone that he believed the Lord was showing him a spiritual barrier or choice in that person’s life that needed to be addressed. He would gently explain what he believed the Lord was revealing and minister to the person accordingly.
As I grew older, I thought often about that great healer, who has since passed away.
And one question kept returning to me:
How did he do it? How did he hear the messages from the Lord so clearly?
Searching for Answers
Driven by that question, I spent the last ten years reading the Bible from cover to cover to see what I could discover.
Like so many believers before me, I found that the Word illuminated itself. Scripture began opening up to me in new ways, allowing me to experience again that beautiful feeling of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
I also began reading the testimonies and teachings of other Christians who had learned to awaken their spiritual ears to hear the voice of God.
I had been researching King David pretty thoroughly. His prayer life was an amazing example to follow, and I had several pieces of his process figured out.
But I was missing something.
Funnily enough, my search eventually led me to one of the most prominent voices I encountered on the subject: Dr. Mark Virkler. He literally wrote the book on the matter. His teachings beautifully pieced together the very steps I had been trying to find in Scripture.
When I looked at the Bible, I saw God speaking directly to giants of the faith like Moses, Abraham, and King David. But thanks to Dr. Virkler, I developed a profound new love and respect for the prophet Habakkuk.
If you are looking for a life-changing resource on intimacy with the Creator, I highly recommend his book, 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice. It is incredibly insightful, scripturally sound, and lays out an easy-to-follow system.
I still read his works today, and whenever I find myself stumbling on my own spiritual path, I reach back to his wisdom.
A Simple Way for the Everyday Believer
That journey is exactly why I created the King David Prayer Experience.
I wanted to build something for the everyday person.
Most people are just like me: we are repentant sinners who live, work, and raise families in the world. We have to intentionally carve out time before or after a long workday just to find a few quiet moments of fellowship with the Lord.
The reality is that most people haven’t had the theological training or the time to master every step required to enter deep, contemplative prayer.
In biblical terms, it can feel overwhelming to navigate your way through the Tabernacle gates with thanksgiving and praise, move past the brazen altar of confession, pass the laver of sanctification, journey through the Holy Place for the illumination of the Word, and then finally enter the Holy of Holies.
For a Bible teacher or a lifetime church leader, those concepts may come naturally.
But everyday people need a simpler, more accessible way to intentionally make room for fellowship with their Creator.
That’s what I wanted the King David Prayer Experience to provide.
It offers a straightforward, peaceful process you can use even when you have only ten or fifteen minutes to spare—whether you’re sitting in your car, taking a break at work, or simply finding a few quiet moments at the beginning or end of your day.
Over time, the pieces I had been searching for came together into five simple movements:
Pour Out Your Heart.
Quiet Yourself.
Set the Lord Before You.
Receive What God Is Giving You.
Write It Down.
It isn’t a formula for making God speak.
It isn’t a shortcut around Scripture.
And it isn’t a promise that every thought that enters our minds comes from Him.
It is a simple way of intentionally making room for something I began longing for as a teenager in a small town in Hawaii:
Fellowship with the living God.
That is the heart behind the King David Prayer Experience—and the heart behind Follow the Voice of God.
My prayer is that what the Lord has taught me along this journey will help others draw closer to Him, learn to recognize His voice, and experience that fellowship for themselves.
